Alan Stewart’s UK and Ireland family history news

London Land Tax Valuations 1910

The 1910 Land Tax valuation rolls for London have recently been made available online.

According to The National Archives’ research guide to Valuation Office Records: The Finance (1909-10) Act, the Act “provided for the levy and collection of a duty on the increment value of all land in the United Kingdom. The main object of the Act was to tax that part of the capital appreciation of real property which was attributable to the site itself, i.e. excluding that arising from crops, buildings and improvements paid for by the owners. In this way, private owners were required to surrender to the State part of the increase in the site value of their land which resulted from the expenditure of public money on communal developments such as roads or public services.”

Ancestry.co.uk has made available online a collection of Land Tax valuation rolls for the City of London that were compiled in 1910. Ancestry says: “The Finance Act 1910 included the taxation in the increase in the value of land, and in order to tax the increase, the land had to be valued to begin with. These rolls are the baseline valuations of land in the different districts of London. The work was done by the District Valuation Offices of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. It involved the compilation of field books and maps that listed all property. The books that comprise this collection are the summary of this information.